334 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



santly going forward, without a vestige of paiii accompany- 

 ing tlieni. There is no pain in seeing, hearing, think- 

 ing, breathing, digesting, &c. If not evei^ part of the 

 nervous mechanism, then only some special part, or parts, 

 must be credited with sensibility under the form of Pain ; 

 and the mere fact of an animal's possessing a nervous sys- 

 tem, will aid the argument only when proof is afforded that 

 this system also includes the special part or parts endowed 

 with sensibility to Pain.* 



As far as I can see into this obscure question. Pain is 

 only a specialisation of that Sensibility which is comvion to 

 all animals. It is a specialisation resulting from a high 

 degi-ee of differentiation of the nervous system, consequently 

 found only in the more complex animals, and in them 

 increasing as we ascend the scale. Out of a jDriniordial 

 basis of Sensibility (one of the vital properties — an ultimate 

 fact, therefore), various special forms are developed. In the 

 ascending series we have first reflex action, we have next 

 the organic sensations, then the special sensations of seeing, 

 hearing, tasting, smelling, touching; we have, further, the 

 sensations of shivering, tickling, fatigue, hunger, thirst, 

 which, although not painful in themselves, may easily pass 

 into pain. Finally, we have a specific form of Sensibility 

 capable of being excited by a great variety of stimuli in 

 great variety of degrees : and this is PaLu ; which appeals 



* In the Proceedings of the Liverpool Literary and Philosophical Society, 

 No. IV. (1848), will be found an interesting essay hy Dr Inraan, entitled 

 " On the Non-existenco of Pain in the Lower Aninaals," in which many curious 

 facts are collected. 



